How are cities combating climate change?

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A QUESTION

30

NOVEMBER 2015

OF DEVELOPMENT SYNTHESES OF AFD STUDIES AND RESEARCH

How are cities combating climate change?

http://librairie.afd.fr/filtres/?terms=1085

Aware of the role that they can play, cities have been organising themselves into networks since the 1990s (C40, Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, etc.) to share their experiences and reinforce their actions. Their commitment now singles them out as leading players: for example, London has announced an 80% reduction in its emissions by 2050, which is one of the most ambitious objectives targeted at local authority level or even national level.

What are the enabling conditions for cities to commit? The cities that engage in the fight against climate change are often more vulnerable than other municipalities to the consequences of this change. Da Nang, in Vietnam, has been hit by twenty typhoons over the last decade, whereas only one typhoon was reported from 1964 to 2002. Agadir, in Morocco, has experienced increased flooding over recent years, with deadly flash floods in 2014. Periods of drought, flooding and the increased salinity of freshwater sources have negative effects on agricultural production. The visibility of these events enables local elected officials to justify stepping up climate actions. Their commitment is all the more readily accepted if the municipality involved is vulnerable to other risks, such as earthquakes in Agadir or Lima, or the El Ni単o phenomenon in Peru. The scientific community nonetheless remains prudent about the causality link between the increase in extreme events and global climate change. 1

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A comparative study conducted in five cities of the Global North and South (Agadir, Da Nang, Lima, London, Nantes) aimed at understanding their commitment to action on climate change. Why have they made this a priority? What concrete actions have been launched? What challenges are they facing?

Cities are often blamed for being the main emitters of greenhouse gases (up to 75% of CO2 emissions are attributed to cities [IPCC, Climate Change Synthesis Report 2014]) due to the energy consumption tied to the activities they host: transport, industry, etc. But they are also the first to suffer from climate change: extreme climate events have more drastic outcomes in highly populated areas and the harmful effects of polluting activities are felt more strongly.

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CITIES HAVE BECOME KEY PLAYERS IN CLIMATE ISSUES


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